Kristen waited patiently for Elias's return. She paced back and forth in the room. Once the door unlocked and Elias walked in, she ran over.
"Elias! What did he do to you!?" Kristen had her hands hover around him without actually touching, as if she were searching for injuries.
"I'm okay.. he seemed nice" he replied
"Ni-uh wait what?" Kristen's head tilted to the side with bewilderment. A friendly pirate? Unheard of.
"Yeah they call themselves the 'Cloud Cleavers' apparently" Elias continued
"Never heard of them" Kristen said
"Neither have I"
Elias walked over to his backpack and pulled out that notebook where he was translating. He then wrote the rhyme he read in the book.
"I found out what these guys are after... why they need us" He said. He then recited the rhyme to Kristen.
"Rae found a story, or rhyme in the Maj-Compendium."
"Its about some ancient golden idol" he continued.
The two began conversing again. Talking about how lucky they were to run into these pirates instead of the Dragonfin, how they'll get to travel the world, and are now on a real treasure hunting mission.
Morning came hours later and the two were still awake. Kristen and Elias pulled out snacks from their bags during the night, despite what the crewman told them, they were still hungry.
The doors began to unlock. Kristen and Elias turned their attention towards it.
"You guys any hungry?" The girl from earlier stuck her head in. She had a warm grin on her face, and it also appeared she had just wakened. It was Elias who actually got up first.
"Yes! We were just talking about it!" He said as he walked over.
The girl's grin grew a little, sending a warm mellow feeling to Elias's gut. He smiled back.
Kristen hurried over as well. As they got to the door, she introduced herself and let them through.
"Name's Adira." She said as they walked up the stairs
"Im Kristen, and he's Elias"
Adira glanced back at them, and Elias smiled and waved.
"Nice to meet you guys under better circumstances. We thought you guys may have been with the guard."
"Is that why we were beaten, tied up and imprisoned?" Kristen replied, in an obvious attempt to make her feel guilty
"Heh.. uh yea.." Adira mumbled.
She led them the same way onto the deck, but they went up a few more steps to a large room. It was a dinning room. Tables lined the sides of the room, and in the center were many lunch benches, crowded with the crew.
There wasn't enough food to fill the room but there was some on the right hand wall. Mostly sianee with different spices and seasoning- a tiny grain when boiled, turn into soft pellets. There were also different kinds of minced meat pockets- soft steamed roots from a gilgila plant hollowed out and stuffed with different kinds of minced and cooked meats or even eggs.
"I made some of the pockets. Help yourself!" She smiled again and headed to the table where Captain Rae and the Imp from earlier was sitting.
Kristen and Elias walked toward the food.
"This used to be a community ship by the looks of this room" Elias said
"Yea, does look like it." Kristen replied as she began to fill her plate. A meat pocket was in her mouth, muffling her voice.
"Do you think they stole it? Could they be on the run from the Guard!?" Elias said, getting a little worried. He grabbed just a few minced meat pockets and scanned the table for a drink.
"Probably.. but this airship is a bit too old for the guard to care... most ships aren't made wooden anymore, dude" Kristen said as she put the pocket that was in her mouth down on the plate. Her tongue was protruding from her lips as she tried her best to balance her massive stack of food.
"Ooh! Juice!" Kristen said aloud. She handed Elias her plate and told him to find a table. She'd get the drinks.
Elias struggled to carry such a heavy plate along with his own, but he made it. He chose an empty table, but the moment he sat, he was called.
"Hey, pup, come sit over here!" Adira hailed Elias. There was plenty of room there. Captain Rae looked back at him and smiled.
Elias picked himself up with the food and wobbled over, sitting next to Adira, and in front of Captain Rae. Kristen came in shortly after, sitting by Elias.
"So... Cloud Cleavers huh?" Kristen uttered
"That's what they call us!" The captain replied. "Don't wear it out."
The imp and Adira both glanced at the captain with a slight cringe.
"Eh.. no one calls us that." Adira told him
"We aren't even known to be honest" The Imp said. "We're one of the smallest groups out here."
"Yea we never heard of you guys until now" Elias said quietly
"Alright alright! I get it!" Captain Rae interrupted everyone. "We aren't as popular as i'd like.. but i'm going to make sure that this ragtag group of freebooters gets their name on the world map! All we need to do.. is find that idol!"
The crew around the captain cheered, but in a quiet, obviously sarcastic manner.
"Yea yea, shut up. You'll thank me once you're swimming in gold"
Kristen giggled and grabbed Elias's arm. When he looked over, she had the look in her eye once again. Gleaming with pure ambition and again what Elias thought was insanity.
"This is perfection, Elias!" she whispered.
Elias ignored her, and focused on his food and so did the others. As they ate, Elias wanted to try and talk to these people. He wanted to maybe befriend them. But before he could do so, Kristen broke the silence first.
"So where are you guys from?" She blurted out
Elias just sat back in his chair and let it happen. He didn't talk but he listened closely.
"Let Adira go first. She has the craziest one so far!" Captain Rae gloated for her.
"Well... Im not too sure where I was born.. but my sister and I grew up on a shady Island where Boiler bots were always being constructed and innovated on." Adira said "No trees, no grass.. only soot and labor. My.. uh.. Adoptive father taught me the ways of machinery and boiler intelligence."
"We think she was born somewhere in South Spirea, on account of her slight accent" Captain Rae said
"Maybe.. but after some experiment went wrong, I was saved by a Boiler Bot believe it or not. Me, my sister and a group of Boilers that attained sentience sailed southward and we hit an island called "Kandra" by the natives. That's where me and my sister grew up for a few years before we were discovered, raided, and taken by the Dragonfin"
"Sentience? what kind of experiments were they running?" Kristen asked
"I don't know.. but they were rumored to be an attempt to merge magic and technology. 'Everlasting power' and stuff.."
"If you were taken by the Dragonfin, how did you end up with these guys?"
"We saved her of course!!" Captain Rae shouted.
Adira looked at Captain Rae with annoyance, but laughed afterwards. "They found me. I escaped the Dragonfin on my own. Ended up on some beach in the Toadstool Wastes where they found me alive two days in."
Elias was mesmerized. This girl had so much history he wanted her to keep going. Elias finally sat up in his chair and asked her a question to keep her talking.
"So how did you get those cool robot arms?" He smiled and pointed at them.
Adira looked at him, she was ready to reply, but she was suddenly quiet. She was visibly shaken by her thoughts. "Hu- Well" She tried but she began stumbling over her words.
"It's alright 'Dira you don't need to talk about it." The imp said. He reached over the table and put his hand on hers.
"Okay." she replied
Guilt flooded Elias's gut. He felt like he was about to hurl. 'Why am I like this?' he thought. He sat back in his chair in a sulk.
The imp turned and began to speak
"Well to change the subject- My name's Donny, but I've adopted the moniker Flecks cause.. Well cause .. you'll see.."
"I come from the Meyan Jungle, or what you imperialistic city-dwellers call 'South Spirea'. I hailed from the Huldra tribe far south of your cities."
"How did you end up on a pirate airship?" Kristen asked
"The imps.. I didn't really fit in with my lot." He said as he scratched his green haired head.
"They wanted to live a simple tribe village life of farming, hunting, fighting other clans...So I left! 'Said I'm going to go join a real civilization!"
"Thing is.. The moment I stepped into the city of Uhm'Grolos, ran by Spirans.. I was called a savage- almost killed." Flecks looked down at his emptied plate, he looked embarrassed and almost as shaken as Adira, but he stayed strong.
He pointed at everyone at the table. "You may not know it, but the Spirans.. your kind.. they are cruel.. only accepting of races with cities... with "civilized" people.. The Grolobbs, the Moles, The Dwurfs.. but not us Imps.."
"So I flew. I didn't want to return to that vile jungle, or that evil city. So i flew over the ocean in attempt to find a new place... I know it was stupid.. but I didn't want to live that life anymore anyway.."
The table fell silent, but Captain Rae ended it.
"But hey! we found him!" He said as he raised his arms
"Yup!" Flecks lightened up again. "I was lying in the ocean, waiting to drown. My wings were too tired to keep me going, so i lay there and accepted my fate. Hundreds of feet above though- This crusty old airship flew."
"We saw him in the water and saw yellowish 'flecks' of colors streaming in the water. His wing's powder or whatever was floating off" Adira finally spoke with a slight grin on her face. She remembered the event vividly. "Captain thought it was gold"
The table laughed. "Awesome, dude. I dig your ambition" Kristen said to him. Flecks simply smiled and told her "I wouldn't make it anywhere without it."
"Right. How about you Captain?"
"Librarians." He stated.
Elias's attention was immediately grabbed. He sat up, leaned on the table and listened in. How did the League of Librarians create the very thing they fight against?
"I was part of a tribe as well, just like Flecks here. But i'm from the Xidali tribe.. Of the new world!"
Elias and Kristen's eyes lit up.
"My story is simple though. I was taken as a child, and grew up learning Sprei. Then I left them in search of real adventure, and not imperialism."
"Oh" Kristen said audibly and unimpressed.
"What? not fantastical enough for you?" How bout you tell us your guys's story huh?"
Adira looked to Elias as if she was awaiting for him to speak, but of course, Kristen took the reins for him.
"I grew up in Cloud Spire and moved to Haden Spire when I was two. I still wear my City-Spire colors though, blue and yellow, cause Cloud Spire is awesome" She said
"Me and Elias were always into exploration, and hearing about the Librarians. So we grew up craving it, but of course, we have to be complete bulldozer athletes, or mega brained intelligent to even get noticed by them.. So we didn't do much.."
Elias chose to start on about himself as well, even though Kristen already talked about the important parts.
"Unlike Kristen, I was born and raised in Haden Spire. I met Kristen when we were about 5 years old at school." Elias looked over to Kristen and a grin grew on both their faces. "She was the only person who'd talk to me when I sat all alone in the back of the class, or was alone during lunch. We had similar interests and everything so.. of course we became very close."
"Cute- but question-" Flecks interrupted "Why the flying flip were you two running around in the dark, when you knew full well that pirates were attacking your city!?"
"We stole some gold from one of the factions and had to get outa there!" Kristen exclaimed while smiling.
"YOU- stole that gold. I was relaxing in my apartment!" Elias shouted "And you told them we had the dang book!"
"Woah woah wait wait- The Maj-Compendium?" Captain Rae's face hardened as he asked this.
"Yea..is that bad?" Kristen muttered under her breath as she asked
Captain Rae stood from the seat. Looked around to make sure everyone's plates were empty and told them.
"Breakfast is over, get to your stations."
Elias and Kristen stood up along with everyone else, but they didn't have stations of course. When everyone else walked out of the dining room, only Rae, Kristen, and Elias remained.
Captain Rae lifted his finger to Kristen's face.
"This gold you found... show me. I need clues on who this was.."
They all headed out the door.
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